The Climate Action Reserve (Reserve) is developing an agriculture sector Cropland Management Project Protocol to provide guidance on how to quantify, monitor, and verify greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions resulting from changes in agricultural land management or land use that increase soil carbon sequestration.

Agriculture Protocols Overview

The Reserve has been evaluating its effort to develop three agriculture protocols concurrently. In light of fixed resources and tight timelines the Reserve has identified a need to reprioritize and focus resources on two rather than three protocols at a time. The Cropland Management Project Protocol faces some particularly complex challenges and the Reserve feels that more time is needed to develop the background research necessary to support protocol development. As a result, the Reserve has decided to postpone the workgroup process for the Cropland Management Project Protocol until the Fall 2011.

Workgroup

The Reserve is working closely with a multi-stakeholder workgroup to develop the Cropland Management Project Protocol. The workgroup includes industry representatives, federal agency personnel, environmental organizations, verifiers and expert consultants. The workgroup includes representatives from:

AgRefresh	Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Agri-Waste Technology, Inc.	Roots of Change
Carbon Reduction Offset Projects	SES, Inc.
California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association / Western Agricultural Processors Association	Soil Conservation Council of Canada
Delta Institute	Stanford Law School
Earth Analytics Group	SunOne Solutions
Illinois EPA, Illinois Conservation and Climate Initiative	Sustainable Conservation
J.G. Boswell Company	The GIC Group
Maryland Department of Agriculture	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
National Center for Appropriate Technology	U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service
National Wildlife Federation	Western Growers
Natural Resources Defense Council

Workgroup Meetings

Workgroup meetings are open to the public. Interested stakeholders can join the workgroup calls as an “observer” and listen to the workgroup discuss important issues for protocol development. Observers will not have the ability to participate in calls but will be able to stay informed by listening to the conversations as they unfold. If you are planning to participate as an observer and would like to receive workgroup meeting notices, send a message to policy@climateactionreserve.org. Workgroup meeting dates will also be posted below, as soon as they are scheduled.

Workgroup Meeting 3
To be scheduled in Fall 2011

Workgroup Meeting 2
Thursday, April 7
Agenda
Reserve Presentation
Meeting Video

Kick-Off Meeting
Wednesday, February 9
Agenda
Reserve Presentation
Meeting Video

Background Resources

Documents that generally support development of the Cropland Management Project Protocol are posted below. Documents that support specific workgroup meetings are posted under the respective meeting dates above, as they become available. Immediately below there is a link to information about the agriculture protocols scoping process, including background resources and presentation slides from the scoping meeting.

• Background Paper: GHG Assessment Boundaries and Leakage for Cropland Management (June 17, 2011)
• Draft Summary of Background Research on Additionality for Cropland Management Project Protocol (April 1, 2011)
• Background Paper: Methodology Synthesis for Cropland Management (March 10, 2011)

If you have questions about the Cropland Management protocol development process, please contact Teresa Lang at tlang@climateactionreserve.org.